MadaboutKitcars

neither chassis nor engine bay pics available. I'll shoot some for ebay UK. Won't sell it in Germany anyway. Germans always want a car with Mercedes quality... a car that produces gas, is friendly to children and is able to transport half an IKEA... And we all know, that a Sammio is a little different...

Ah, we missed you. The man who knows everything. It must be such fun.

Ahh, the rat look. A classic style...

I'd have to clean it to make it look like this.

I would need to use weed killer before I tried to clean mine!



Just spotted the none original radiator over flow bottle too, although on second looks, it could be a temporary fuel tank fitted in front of the radiator

yeah, that's my engine bay

When I lifted the bonnet a cat ran out, apparently she used to live under the bonnet when she was due to have kittens.

Just cleaned it up... was a pig of a job! But here you have it:

We told you that it would look better without all of the overspray!

You know, here in Germany, an engine bay has to look like an operating room. No dust, no grease, no dirt. Vee are notttt kidding viz zat!!!

If you don't believe me - ask Micha

I didn't try to tempt the cat back into my engine so I could keep it original. My car was a pre-cat* model



*pre-cat is English term for pre-catalytic converter. Just in case it doesn't translate well

Now, I chose to buy a body and frame from Gary J and build the car myself.

I did this because it had been my dream to build a fifties Porsche sports racing car replica, a 718 RSK Spyder, for more than thirty years, (I'd even perfected the Sir Stirling Moss hairstyle) and I knew I could never justify the £15k outlay needed to do the job properly. Then Gary pops up selling his very pretty bodyshells on ebay for the equivalent of tuppence h'apenny, and the decision was made for me.

At the time, Gary offered the option of 'stage' builds, where the customer provided the donor car and Gary and team (Mike) disposed of the unwanted parts, prepared the chassis and bonded on the bodyshell for a modest sum of money. For a bit more money, he and Mike would get it finished to a basic standard and hand it over to the customer as a turn-key car.

That, as I understood it, was the deal. The chassis and running gear you handed over came back to you exactly as it arrived at Gary's palatial premises, warts and all.

As Gary has frequently pointed out on this forum, he's not a car restorer, but likes to offer cheap individualist motoring for the discerning few. Or discerning hundred odd who've bought bodies from him over the last two years as it happens. So, if you wanted a pristine chassis, polished brake back-plates and stainless braided hoses, that's how you needed to deliver your donor to Gary. The problems Gary has experienced regarding unhappy customers and the criticism Micha levels at the cars would seem to me to be down to the occasional customer or armchair critic who just didn't get this concept, and expect McLaren quality for McDonalds prices.

So, it matters nought that the 'factory built' cars are a bit tatty round the edges, if you want to be really happy with your Sammio, the answer is to build it yourself. Oh, and think about how little you've paid for the parts before bleating about the quality.

Right, I'll get down off the soap box now.

By the way: has anybody ever seen Micha's Sammio?

Apropo (sp?) Nothing, Towed, been meaning to ask, can you touch type?? Would have taken me all morning to type that!!

Yes, I learned to touch type at a rate of about sixty words a minute while I was studying for my OU degree about fifteen years ago. Useful skill these days!

Thats about ten times faster than me. I type fast, but its the going back and correcting that takes the time, specially as I use my phone fir nearly. everything.

Ahh, I hate devices that don't have a proper keyboard. Mobile phones with touch screens are just the worst. Oh, and my mother, who's nearly eighty, was a secretary and learned to type on a manual typewriter. When I was learning to touch-type I used a CD-ROM disc that had exercises where you could test your speed and accuracy. I hit sixty wpm with 98% accuracy, but mother managed over 100 wpm with 100% accuracy. But it sounded like a gattling gun being fired and she broke my keyboard.

T, a and edumacated... MAN

I think I need an Enigma for that...

Didn't the Americans steal one of those from a U-Boat in a fantasy movie?

Oh, and to keep it simple, Google translate says he means that I am both Hochschulabschluss und Polizisten, which sounds like a substance dependancy when said in English.

Some times you can just SO tell you're a copper!

It's like talking to my missus when she mentions "chalk boards" and "pen boards" <sigh>

Sadly, political correctness is everywhere. I was just talking about this to an honest, hard working member of the travelling community the other day...

Yeah, you can't call them Nut Houses any more, you have to call them Mental Health Institutions.

It's Madness gone Politically Correct!

It's beautiful. The engine and drive train were prepared by Hans Christian Andersen and the bodywork was trusted to the Brothers Grimm. It was coated in tree sap and then pressurized and heated. It is real amber. The upholstery is made from the scrotums of 1,000 unicorns. Each night it is parked in a little garage made out of ginger bread. That isn't overspray, it's fairy dust.

Thanks for another sleepless night...